Flippo said FORA's Administrative Committee violated the Brown Act during serial meetings in November and December in which the members created the controversial "guiding principles."

The guidelines sparked a firestorm at FORA, particularly for an item that would limit land-use votes on the FORA board to land-holding jurisdictions. The proposal would exclude Carmel, Pacific Grove, Sand City and Salinas, which now have land-use votes.

The Monterey County Board of Supervisors adopted the principles Dec. 4, but rescinded that action Feb. 5. Del Rey Oaks Mayor and FORA board member Jerry Edelen said he will push for his city to do the same thing. The cities of Seaside and Marina also adopted the principles; the Monterey City Council never voted on them.

It was staff members from those cities and the county who met illegally Nov. 13 at an unannounced gathering organized by Carl Holm, deputy director of the Monterey County Resource Management Agency.

Seaside Deputy City Manager Diana Ingersoll later said the guiding principles "evolved" spontaneously during that "informal" meeting, in what she saw as a nearly miraculous agreement of the five jurisdictions. Ingersoll and Holm could not be reached for comment Monday.

In a press release issued late Monday, Flippo noted that the participants, all members of the Administrative Committee, had announced meetings in November and December where the issue was not discussed in public. Instead they were fine-tuned in the unannounced meeting and subsequent series of emails.

"All of these discussions were out of the public view in violation of the Brown Act," Flippo said.

He sent "cease and desist" letters to each of the participants Friday. While the law allows him to file a civil lawsuit to undo any actions taken at the meeting, Flippo said, it appears supervisors and others public agencies are making action unnecessary by rescinding the principles.

The violations were brought to Flippo's attention by attorneys for Keep Fort Ord Wild. Molly Erickson and Michael Stamp had provided the FORA board with emails detailing the illegal communications and asked it to seek a criminal investigation of the Brown Act violations.

"When FORA did nothing, when they completely ignored the letter, we sent that same letter to the district attorney and asked (him) to investigate," said Erickson.

She said the news was another in a string of victories for the open-space advocates she represents. Flippo's reprimand of the participants, she said, was more than her clients had received from FORA after a year of lodging complaints and lawsuits over alleged violations of laws governing everything from public records and conflict of interest to environmental protection and financial misappropriation.

"The just-released audit of FORA has confirmed even more the financial violations that Keep Fort Ord Wild alleged many months ago," she added.

The FORA board is scheduled to receive a final audit Friday that faults the agency for reimbursing personal expenses incurred by Executive Officer Michael Houlemard.

FORA counsel Jerry Bowden responded to requests for comment on Houlemard's behalf Monday. He said FORA did not respond to Keep Fort Ord Wild's demands regarding the Brown Act violations because the meeting and emails occurred without FORA's knowledge and the participants "were not acting as an arm of FORA."

In fact, he said, the staff members tried to conceal the meeting from FORA until after the cities and county voted to accept the guiding principles.

"I agree that the Brown Act was violated ... But they were not acting through FORA," he said. The Administrative Committee "is not a committee of the board. It's a committee created by statute to advise the board."

Flippo said he did not understand Bowden's rationale. The advisory committee is a "subsidiary body" of FORA.

"When you stop and think about it, where more would you want the public to have access than to an advisory committee to the ultimate decision maker that is FORA?" he asked.

Edelen said Flippo's findings were clear.

"He's pretty specific," he said. "It was illegal. It should not have been done and all I can say is, it will never happen again.

"I'd like just push to get rid of the guiding principles," he added. "It's tended to divide the land-use jurisdictions from non-land-use jurisdictions. Hopefully we can get rid of those and move forward with more pressing business in making FORA a better organization."

Supervisor Jane Parker said the District Attorney's letter underscores the need for better FORA oversight.

"I think what this shows is FORA needs to do a much better job monitoring its committees," Parker said, "They need to make sure they know what (the committees) are doing, and that they're properly trained on the Brown Act."

Parker first raised concerns about the "guiding principles" in early December, when she asked the Board of Supervisors to hold off on approving them on the consent agenda until there was an opportunity for more discussion. Her request was rebuffed by Supervisor Dave Potter at the time, and the principles were approved on a 4-1 vote.

Potter reversed direction in voting to rescind the principles this month. The guidelines may be discussed at the FORA board as soon as Friday's workshops on the base reuse plan reassessment.